New Orleans ala carte

Following are a few impressionable moments I had this week while visiting the Crescent City; the city that care forgot.


Some people’s attitude toward something different or new never fails to amaze me. Some of the best and freshest food in the world is available in New Orleans: fresh oysters, shrimp right off the dock, jambalaya, red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee, andouille sausage, Cajun and Creole and la nouvelle orleans cuisine. Yet a few of my friends ordered chicken everywhere we went.



Famous restaurants Antoine’s, and Galatoire’s, local favorite Upperline, deliciously wicked holes in the wall like the Acme Oyster House and Uglesich’s (no longer in business) make New Orleans a gastronomic heaven. Yet several of our group refused to venture outside of the hotel restaurants and if they did, they wanted to eat at a national chain that is the same in every city. Okay, I can understand not liking a particular food, but imagine coming to Kansas City and not eating bar-b-que, turning down a chance to eat at legends like Arthur Bryant’s or local favorites such as Bluestem or 40 Sardines. What a boring world it would be.

I’ll never forget this. Walking down Bourbon Street, with a female colleague that is a conservative Muslim. She covers her hair, wears very loose, long, simple dresses. As she walked her head turned neither to the left or the right. Her vision fixed straight ahead. But she wanted to see it and was a great sport about it all.

Drinking my first absinthe. It is legal now, but the little ritual that goes along with it seems so illicit. Lighting the sugar cube, the tube of chilled water, it all felt so decadent, especially in the haunts of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner.